System and method for a video content service monitoring &amp; provisioning architecture

ABSTRACT

According to one example embodiment there is provided a computer program executable on a computing platform to at least in part analyze data at least in part obtained from one or more data sources of an Internet-protocol television (IPTV) network, wherein the data provided by the data sources includes set-top-box data, subscriber data, demographic data, content server data and network usage data. In another embodiment, the computer program at least in part correlates video provisioning information obtained from the data sources, individual subscriber channel viewing information, subscriber data and demographic data to provide informative views of data. The provisioning information may include information such as what programs or television (TV) commercials are shown on each channel during different time periods and the TV or video-on-demand program category information.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The inventive subject matter relates to the field of televisiondistribution and programming, and more particularly to methods andsystems including monitoring, reporting and provisioning televisioncontent and distribution.

COPYRIGHT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and dataas described below and in the drawings that form a part of thisdocument: Copyright 2006 SBC Knowledge Ventures L.P. All RightsReserved.

BACKGROUND

Recently, IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) has attracted many serviceproviders' attention to provide live TV programs and video-on-demand(VoD) services. The inherent flexibilities on top of IP-based videoservice network can facilitate advanced and flexible video services(such as picture-in-picture), high quality pictures (high-definitionTV), and large amount of information (large number of TV channels).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-3 illustrate an Internet-protocol television (IPTV) systemaccording to one embodiment of the inventive subject matter hereof;

FIG. 4 illustrates a method of monitoring, analyzing and predicting IPTVvideo services according to one example embodiment of the inventivesubject matter hereof;

FIG. 5 illustrates different categories of information presented toviewers according to still another example embodiment of the inventivesubject matter hereof;

FIG. 6 illustrates an IPTV video service monitoring and provisioningarchitecture according to still another example embodiment of theinventive subject matter hereof;

FIGS. 7-10 illustrate user interfaces and data views according to stillother example embodiments of the inventive subject matter hereof; and

FIG. 11 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a computingplatform according to still other example embodiments of the inventivesubject matter hereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown byway of illustration specific embodiments in which the inventive subjectmatter can be practiced. It is understood that other embodiments may beutilized and structural changes may be made without departing from thescope of the present invention. The leading digit(s) of referencenumbers appearing in the Figures generally corresponds to the Figurenumber in which that component is first introduced, such that the samereference number is used throughout to refer to an identical componentwhich appears in multiple Figures. Signals and connections may bereferred to by the same reference number or label, and the actualmeaning may be clear from its use in the context of the description.

According to various example embodiments, the inventive subject matterdescribed herein provides video service monitoring and provisioningservices for IPTV networks. Such embodiments may include the capabilityto provide more monitoring and rating information with differentcategories, viewing levels, and timelines. Further, the target users ofsuch information may include not only IPTV content providers, but alsoIPTV advertisers. The monitoring results, information prediction, andcontent provisioning may also be customized for different groups ofusers. In addition, monitoring and prediction results may be based onall the subscribers instead of sampling results from a subset of allsubscribers. Further, according to one example embodiment, themonitoring may be used to provide customized video services from IPTVcontent providers and TV advertisers.

According to other example embodiments of the inventive subject matter,there is provided methods and systems to monitor, analyze, and predictsubscribers' viewing habits and interests. The results of themonitoring, analysis and prediction may be, for example, used to providecustomized video content and IPTV advertisements that are delivered toIPTV viewers. Further, the methods and systems may be used to obtainaccurate IPTV subscriber usage information that may be: i) used tomanage the network traffic and guarantee IPTV video service quality; ii)used by the content providers to retrieve subscribers' viewing interestand enhance TV program quality; and iii) used by TV commercialadvertisers to understand the subscribers' interests and viewing habitsso as to improve marketing campaigns, advertising sales, andrelationships with networks.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, there is illustrated schematicdiagrams depicting a configuration of an IPTV network 100 in accordancewith one embodiment of the inventive subject matter hereof. As shown inFIG. 1, the network 100 includes a super hub office (SHO) 110 foracquisition and encoding of video content, one or more video hub offices(VHO) 120 in each demographic market area (DMA), one or moreintermediate offices (IO) 130, one or more central offices (CO) 140located in each metropolitan area, and finally the subscribers (S) 150,which may be located in single or multiple dwelling units. In oneexample embodiment, the network 100 may be connected through a pluralityof high speed communication links 160 using physical transport layerssuch as fiber, cable, twisted pair, air or other media.

In one example embodiment, of the IPTV video delivery system, the SHO110 distributes content to the VHOs 120 which may be spread across awide geographic territory, such as an entire country. The SHO 110 may,for example, be in a central location for acquisition and aggregation ofnational-level broadcast TV (or linear) programming. A redundant SHO 110may be provided for backup in case of failure. The SHO 110 may also thecentral point of on-demand content acquisition and insertion into theIPTV network. Linear programming may be received at the SHO 110 viasatellite and processed for delivery to the VHOs 120. On-demand contentmay be received from various sources and processed/encoded to codec andbit-rate requirements for the communication network for transmission tothe VHOs 120 over the high-speed communication links. VHOs 120 are thevideo distribution points within each demographic market area (DMA) orgeographic region.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated in more detail an examplenetwork architecture 200 between the CO 140 and the subscriber 150. Aserving area interface (SAI) 210 is connected to the CO 140. SAI 210may, for example, be located in a weather-proof enclosure proximate thesubscriber premises, and may include FTTN equipment. FTTN equipment mayalso be located in the CO 140. Customer premise equipment includes (CPE)220, for example, a network interface device (NID) and a residentialgateway (RG) 230, for example with a built-in VDSL modem or opticalnetwork termination (ONT). In both cases the RG 230 may be connected tothe rest of the home set top boxes (STBs) 240 via an internal networksuch as an Ethernet. Each STB 240 has an associated remote control (RC)250 that provides data entry to the STB 240 to control the IPTVselections from the IPTV data streams. According to one exampleembodiment, a STB 240 may be a stand-alone unit capable of, for examplebut not by way of limitation, receiving video inputs and producing videooutputs, receiving user inputs for changing channels (using one or morebuttons on the box or the RC 250) or displaying the number of a selectedtelevision channel. In an alternate embodiment, a STB 240 may be formedusing a personal computer or other such multi-purpose computing device,for example using one or more plug-in cards that can provide therequired capabilities of a STB.

Referring now to FIG. 3, which illustrates one example embodiment of aconfiguration according to the inventive subject matter, a SHO server310 may be used to acquire national content that may be distributedtowards the VHOs 120. In an alternative embodiment, live televisioncontent may be acquired using a server in the VHOs 120. In thisconfiguration, the VHO 120 may include a live television server 320 anda video server 330, which forward the live television and/or othercontent toward the subscriber through the intermediate offices (IOs) 130and the central office (CO) 140. A VHO 120 may also include applicationsystems 340, regional subscriber database systems 350, and VOD servers360. The COs 140 are connected to the IOs 130 to further distributetraffic towards the subscribers 150. Traffic may reach the subscribers150 at least partially via either fiber to the node (FTTN) or fiber tothe premises (FTTP), or by other types of transmission medium.

As also illustrated in FIG. 3, television server 320 distributes aplurality of live television programs, each typically associated with atelevision “channel,” using a multicast IP protocol data stream 370through the IOs 130 and COs 140 to the subscribers 150. The routers,switches and other network elements that would normally be present inthe IOs 130 and COs 140 are not shown in FIG. 3 in order to simplify thedrawing. The number of programs or channels sent in the multicast streammay, without limitation, range up to 800 channels or more using presenttechnology with it being understood that advances in technology mayallow many more channels to be sent. The multicast protocol allows forefficient distribution of these signals to a large number of endsubscribers. In addition, the video server 330 receives the multicastdata stream 370 and distributes selected ones of the live televisionsignals, extracted from the stream 370, using a unicast data stream380a, 380b and 380c, to specific subscribers 150. In this embodiment,video server 330 may provide a unicast stream, for example in burstmode, of a specific live television channel to any of the subscribersserved by the VHO 120. The burst mode instant channel change data streamcan be discontinued once the subscriber's system is loaded with enoughTV program data so that the multicast stream can “catch up” and takeover supplying the program data stream in the multicast mode for moreextended term viewing by the subscriber.

As noted above, live IPTV streams are usually delivered based on the IPmulticast protocol. The full range of multicast addresses is from324.0.0.0 to 339.255.255.255. That is, the number multicast streams ontop of the Internet can be 16*255*255*255. This provides serviceproviders enough flexibility to deliver different levels of videocontent for the same TV channel to a large number of subscribers.Further, as the TV streams are delivered based on IP multicast, thebackbone traffic increase will at most be (L−1)*N*B irrespective thenumber of subscribers (except subscriber-specific content), where L isthe number of service levels, N is the number of channels which weprovide service differentiation and B is the per-stream bandwidthconsumption.

According to one embodiment of the inventive subject matter illustratedin FIG. 4, there is provided a method 400 of monitoring, analyzing andpredicting IPTV video services. Information is collected 405 fordifferent viewing groups, including at least the following differentgeographic viewing levels: national 410, regional 420, city 430, and/orZip code 440. At 445, the information is used to monitor, analyze,categorize and predict IPTV video services. As illustrated in FIG. 5,for each viewing level, different users (content providers or TVadvertisers, network engineers or others) may be presented withdifferent categories of information. For example, the monitoringarchitecture 502 can provide information 500 to one or more contentproviders 505, who may retrieve information 500 about one or more of thefollowing alone or in combination: viewing groups 510, viewing time 515,popular TV programs 520, pay-per-view (PPV) usage 525, video on demand(VoD) programs 530 (or channels), and/or the size and/or demographicinformation of viewing groups 535. One or more IPTV advertisers 540 mayretrieve information 575, such as the viewing time period 545,background information of the viewers 550, popular programs and channels555, viewing group size and locations 560, popular commercials 565,and/or effectiveness of past TV commercials 570, and more. Based on thisinformation, content providers and IPTV advertisers can maximallyutilize the flexibility of IPTV and provide customized content deliveryservices.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated one example embodiment ofIPTV video service monitoring and provisioning system 600. A datacollection and analysis server 602, with one or more data storagesystems 604, may collect data inputs from different portions andlocations of IPTV service network, including the set top box (STB) 605,located at the premises of subscribers of the IPTV service network.While only one STB 605 is illustrated, it shall be understood that it isrepresentative of more than one, if not a great many, STBs 605 of theIPTV service network. The STB 605 provides the subscribers' STBidentification (ID), a unique ID 607 for each STB 605, as well as thevideo service usage information for the subscriber, including, forexample, digital video recorder (DVR) usage, video-on-demand (VoD)service usage, channel change information, and/or channel viewing timeinformation.

A subscriber database 610, for example located in a service networkoffice such as the SHO 110 or VHO 120, provides subscriber backgroundinformation, such as address, profession, income, for each STB 605, forexample indexed by STB ID 607. A subscriber may use more than one STB605, and therefore more than one STB 605 may be associated with eachsubscriber.

A demographic database 615 is further provided, and includes additionaldemographic information based on market research results, such as theprofession, or income, or race distribution in some geographic area,such as geographic area defined by zip code, city, state or otherparameters.

A content server 620, such as but not limited to servers 320, 330 and360, provides information about video provisioning information, such aswhat programs/TV commercials are shown on each channel during differenttime period, the TV or VoD program category information (drama, sci-fi,music, news, etc). By correlating this information with subscribers'channel viewing information, each subscriber's viewing habits andinterests may be determined.

Network usage information 625 is also collected, for example from one ormore components of the IPTV service network. Network usage information625 may provide the number of multicast channels in each area that isbeing used to support broadcasting TV/pay-per-view, the number ofunicast streams to support VoD, and any other desired network usageinformation available from the network. Further, Internet access andusage information for each subscriber may also be collected from anInternet access or usage data source. The Internet usage may be obtainedfrom an Internet access point in the network such as a router, switch orcomputing system provided in the network between the subscriber'sdwelling and the Internet, and may include information concerning theweb sites visited by the subscriber or other information on otherInternet resources used by the subscriber.

In addition, voice over IP (VoIP) usage information 630 is alsocollected for each subscriber.

Video usage analysis and prediction software 640 is operative on server602, and processes and correlates the information obtained from thevarious sources described above. According to one embodiment, the server602 may download and store or archive information collected from thevarious system components, or alternatively download and process theinformation in real time and store only the results of the processing,or any combination thereof. The analysis and prediction software 640 canobtain the TV programs/commercials (drama, comedy, news, etc.) viewers'backgrounds, addresses, viewing time, and any other desired data orinformation from the components of system 600. According to anotherexample embodiment, based on the past TV viewing dynamic data, thesoftware 640 can predict the future video usage information for eacharea. The analysis and prediction results may include at least thefollowing three different dimensions of information, for example usedfor viewing the information: (i) by information property; (ii) bygeographical-level; or (iii) by timeline. The dimension of informationproperty may include one or more of the following: (i) IPTV subscribers'background information (Demography, gender, age, profession, averagehousehold income, etc.); (ii) IPTV channel/program provisioningInformation; (iii) VoD provisioning Information; (iv) subscribinginformation; (v) TV channel/program viewing time and STB usageinformation; (vi) TV channel change information; (vii) VoD/PPV/DVR usageinformation; and/or (viii) TV commercial viewing information.

The dimension of geographic-level information may include: (i)subscriber/household; (ii) zip code; (iii) city/market level; (iv)regional level; and/or (v) national level.

The dimension of timeline information may include: (i) hourly (15-minuteincrements for example); (ii) daily; (iii) monthly; (iv) yearly; and/or(v) multi-year.

According to one example embodiment, the output of the analysis andprediction software 640 may be customized to IPTV content providers andadvertisers. For example, IPTV content providers may be provided with auser-interface 700, served by the software 640, as illustrated in FIG.7. As illustrated, interface 700 allows a user to select view level 710,a region 715 (e.g., Midwest or state in region), a market 720 (e.g. acity), or a zip code 725.

After choosing a view level (such as national level), according to oneexample embodiment, the view 800 of information illustrated in FIG. 8may be presented to the IPTV content providers by software 640. The view800 shows the current view level and its sub-view levels' current statusfor each information category. The detail information for each categorymay be presented in different windows.

For example, after clicking an information category (such as on the TVProgram Information), the user interface 900 illustrated in FIG. 9 maybe shown for national level view. For the summary of overall programviewed, the information may be shown in the view 1000 illustrated inFIG. 10, in which each color represents different categories ofprograms.

According to one example embodiment of a method according to theinventive subject matter, based on the output of the software 640,content providers and TV advertisers can provide different setcustomized programs and TV Ads to different group of people so as toenhance their revenue from providing content services or TV Ads. Forexample, if some area residents spent most of the time watching sportsgames, it may be better to provide them with more sports related productinformation or sports game information. If some area people arecomparatively wealthy, TV advertisers may provide more high-end productsinformation than other areas. If some area has more young couples, theymay prefer more adventure, or sci-fi programs.

Accordingly, by using the flexibility of IPTV, the above-describedmethods and systems may obtain the video viewers' living and viewinghabits, perform analysis and prediction, and help video serviceproviders, content providers, and TV advertisers to provider betterservice and market campaign.

Thus, according to one example embodiment, the systems and methodsdescribed herein may provide IPTV viewing information with differentinformation categories, view levels, and timelines without the directinvolvement of subscribers. Further, the monitored and predictedinformation can facilitate IPTV content providers and advertisers tocustomize video content services (so as to provide better service andmarket campaign). Still further, the information provided can be basedon all the subscribers' accurate results instead of sampling dataresults.

FIG. 11 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system 1100 within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, themachine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g.,networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine mayoperate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-clientnetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (ordistributed) network environment. The machine may be a personal computer(PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a network router, switchor bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions(sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by thatmachine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term“machine” may also be taken to include any collection of machines thatindividually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructionsto perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 1100 includes a processor 1102 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) orboth), a main memory 1104, and a static memory 1106, which communicatewith each other via a bus 1108. The computer system 1100 may furtherinclude a video display unit 1110 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD)or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system 1100 also includes analphanumeric input device 1112 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor controldevice 1114 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 1116, a signal generationdevice 1118 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 1120. Thedisk drive unit 1116 includes a machine-readable medium 1122 on which isstored one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g.,software) 1124 embodying or utilized by any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 1124 mayalso reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory1104 and/or within the processor 1102 during execution thereof by thecomputer system 1100, the main memory 1104 and the processor 1102 alsoconstituting machine-readable media. The instructions 1124 may furtherbe transmitted or received over a network 1126 via the network interfacedevice 1120 utilizing any one of a number of well-known transferprotocols, for example the hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP).

While the machine-readable medium 1118 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readablemedium” may also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by themachine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present invention, or that is capable of storing,encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with sucha set of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” mayaccordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-statememories, optical and magnetic media, and carrier wave signals.

In this description, numerous specific details are set forth. However,it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits,software, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail inorder not to obscure the understanding of this description. Note that inthis description, references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” meanthat the feature being referred to is included in at least oneembodiment of the invention. Further, separate references to “oneembodiment” in this description do not necessarily refer to the sameembodiment; however, neither are such embodiments mutually exclusive,unless so stated and except as may be readily apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art. Thus, the inventive subject matter mayinclude any variety of combinations and/or integrations of theembodiments described herein. Each claim, as may be amended, constitutesan embodiment of the inventive subject matter, incorporated by referenceinto the detailed description. Moreover, in this description, the phrase“exemplary embodiment” means that the embodiment being referred toserves as an example or illustration. Further, block diagrams illustrateexemplary embodiments of the invention. Also herein, flow diagramsillustrate operations of the exemplary embodiments of the invention. Theoperations of the flow diagrams are described with reference to theexemplary embodiments shown in the block diagrams. However, it should beunderstood that the operations of the flow diagrams could be performedby embodiments of the invention other than those discussed withreference to the block diagrams, and embodiments discussed withreference to the block diagrams could perform operations different thanthose discussed with reference to the flow diagrams. Additionally, someembodiments may not perform all the operations shown in a flow diagram.Moreover, it should be understood that although the flow diagrams depictserial operations, certain embodiments could perform certain of thoseoperations in parallel.

Further, although the present specification describes components andfunctions implemented in the embodiments with reference to particularstandards and protocols, the invention may be not limited to suchstandards and protocols. Each of the standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP)represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same functions are considered equivalents.

Although the inventive subject matter has been described with referenceto several example embodiments, it may be understood that the words thathave been used are words of description and illustration, rather thanwords of limitation. Changes may be made within the purview of theappended claims, as presently stated and as amended, without departingfrom the scope and spirit of the inventive subject matter in all itsaspects. Although the inventive subject matter has been described withreference to particular means, materials and embodiments, the inventivesubject matter is not intended to be limited to the particularsdisclosed; rather, the subject matter extends to all functionallyequivalent structures, methods, and uses such as are within the scope ofthe appended claims.

1. An article of manufacture comprising a computer program executable ona computing platform to: at least in part analyze data at least in partobtained from one or more data sources of an Internet-protocoltelevision (IPTV) network, wherein one of the data sources isInternet-usage data; and at least in part correlate individualsubscriber channel viewing information and the Internet-usage data toprovide informative views of data.
 2. An article of manufactureaccording to claim 1 further wherein the data sources are selected fromthe group: set-top-box data, subscriber data, demographic data, contentserver data, Internet-usage data and network usage data; and thecomputer program is further executable on a computing platform to atleast in part correlate video provisioning information obtained from thesubscriber data and demographic data, and the provisioning informationincludes information relating to which programs or television (TV)commercials are shown on each channel during different time periods andTV or video-on-demand program category information.
 3. An article ofmanufacture according to claim 1 wherein the computer program is adaptedto analyze the data based on market research results including one ormore of the following: profession, income, or race distribution in atleast one geographic area.
 4. An article of manufacture according toclaim 2 wherein the subscriber data includes subscriber backgroundinformation including address, profession or income information
 5. Anarticle of manufacture according to claim 1 wherein the IPTV networkincludes a plurality of set-top-boxes each having a uniqueidentification (ID), and at least some of the set-top-boxes includedigital video recorders, are further adapted to output video serviceusage information.
 6. An article of manufacture according to claim 5wherein the video service usage information includes digital videorecorder usage, video-on-demand service usage, channel changeinformation, and/or channel viewing time information.
 7. An article ofmanufacture according to claim 1 wherein the computer program is adaptedto predict future video usage information for one or more geographicareas.
 8. An article of manufacture according to claim 1 further whereinthe computer program is adapted to generate reports including at leastthree different dimensions of information including property, geographicand time.
 9. An article of manufacture according to claim 8 wherein thedimension of information property includes one or more of the following:(i) IPTV subscribers' background information including demographic,gender, age, profession, or average household income; (ii) IPTVchannel/program provisioning Information; (iii) VoD provisioninginformation; (iv) subscriber information; (v) TV channel or programviewing time and set-top-box usage information; (vi) TV channel changeinformation; (vii) VoD/PPV/DVR usage information; and/or (viii) TVcommercial viewing information.
 10. An article of manufacture accordingto claim 8 wherein the dimension of geographic information includes oneor more of the following: (i) subscriber/household; (ii) zip code; (iii)city or market level; (iv) regional level; and/or (v) national level.11. An article of manufacture according to claim 8 wherein the dimensionof time information includes one or more of the following: (i) hourly;(ii) daily; (iii) monthly; (iv) yearly; and/or (v) multi-year.
 12. Anarticle of manufacture according to claim 8 further wherein the computerprogram is adapted to enable a user to select a view level, a region, amarket, or a zip code.
 13. An article of manufacture according to claim8 wherein the computer program is adapted to enable a user to choose aview level and provide a view of the data at a current view level and asub-view level's current status for each information category.
 14. Amethod comprising: collecting data from at least one set top box (STB)unit, at least one subscriber database, at least one demographicdatabase, at least one content server and at least one Internet-accessdata source, wherein at least the STB unit or content servers are acomponent of an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) network; processingthe data to provide information for geographic viewing levels; andwherein the information at each geographic viewing level is categorizeddifferently for at least two different types of users of the data.
 15. Amethod according to claim 14 further including processing theinformation to enable content providers to accomplish one or morequeries to retrieve data selected from the group: information aboutviewing groups, viewing time, popular TV programs, pay-per-view (PPV),VoD programs (or channels), the size and/or demographic information ofviewing groups.
 16. A method according to claim 14 further includingprocessing the information to enable advertisers to perform one or morequeries to retrieve data selected from the group: a viewing time period,background information of viewing subscribers, popular programs andchannels, viewing group size and locations, popular commercials, and/oreffectiveness of past TV commercials.
 17. A system comprising: a datastorage device to store data received from a set top box (STB) unit; asubscriber database; a demographic database; one or more contentservers, wherein at least the STB unit and at least one content serveris a component of an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) distributionsystem; and a processing system to process the received data to presentdata for a plurality of geographic viewing levels wherein each level maybe categorized differently for at least two different types of users ofthe data.
 18. A system according to claim 17 further wherein theprocessing system is further adapted to enable content provider typeusers to retrieve information relating to at least one interest selectedfrom the group: viewing groups, viewing time, popular TV, pay-per-view(PPV), VoD programs (or channels), size and/or demographic informationof viewing groups.
 19. A system according to claim 17 further whereinthe processing system is further adapted to enable advertiser type usersto accomplish one or more actions relating to queries selected from thegroup: the viewing time period, background information of the viewers,popular programs and channels, viewing group size and locations, popularcommercials, and/or effectiveness of past TV commercials.
 20. A systemaccording to claim 17 wherein the geographic viewing levels include oneor more of the following levels: national, regional, city, or ZIP code.